Nuair a bhí mé ag dul trid Baile Andarsan inné chonaic mé sean chara, Micky Patrick Smyth.
I hadn't seen Micky in a while and we got talking about this, that and the other and one of the topics was graveyards and cemeteries.
Micky knows I like going to old ones so he asked if I've ever been to Tullyrusk graveyard and although I'd heard of the townland I didn't know there was a graveyard in the area.
So being the inquisitive type I phoned a friend - sorry for that! - who also likes going to old graveyards, churches and the likes and once I explained a bit about it he said he'd pick me up. Five minutes later we hit the road and reached Tullyrusk Road - it's not far from Lamh Dhearg- in about 10 minutes but no sign of a graveyard. I knocked a few doors and at one house a woman pointed us in the direction and said it's 'only down the road'. I've heard that a few times so off we headed and I can tell you it was further than she said but the country air done us no harm!
We had to cross a busy enough road but it was worth it for the views alone. We reckoned from that part of Aontroim we could see The Mournes, Sperrins, Cooley and possibly even some mountains in Tir Conaill. We asked an old man how to get to the graveyard and he couldn't be friendlier and pointed out a gate and told us to head to trees in the middle of the field. We asked if there was a church and we had a laugh when he said 'that bastard Cromwell destroyed it'.
The field was dry so after a few minutes we saw steps leading up to a gate so Gerry and I went through it and the first thing that struck us was how small a graveyard it is. Most of the graves were old and many inscriptions had weathered and therefore hard to make out. The oldest grave we found was from 1724 and it doesn't make any difference to us but we couldn't tell for sure whether the majority were catholic or protestant but a lot of names were familiar to us such as McGarrity, Tolan, Magee, McCartney and other names of families from in and around Hannahstown.
Well that's another graveyard ticked off but hopefully it'll be a long time before anyone notices my name on a headstone!
PS I've just found out that Patrick Magee, whose headstone can be seen, was shot dead by a local unit of the British army just after the 1798 rebellion. They were the UDR and B Special scum of that period.
So being the inquisitive type I phoned a friend - sorry for that! - who also likes going to old graveyards, churches and the likes and once I explained a bit about it he said he'd pick me up. Five minutes later we hit the road and reached Tullyrusk Road - it's not far from Lamh Dhearg- in about 10 minutes but no sign of a graveyard. I knocked a few doors and at one house a woman pointed us in the direction and said it's 'only down the road'. I've heard that a few times so off we headed and I can tell you it was further than she said but the country air done us no harm!
We had to cross a busy enough road but it was worth it for the views alone. We reckoned from that part of Aontroim we could see The Mournes, Sperrins, Cooley and possibly even some mountains in Tir Conaill. We asked an old man how to get to the graveyard and he couldn't be friendlier and pointed out a gate and told us to head to trees in the middle of the field. We asked if there was a church and we had a laugh when he said 'that bastard Cromwell destroyed it'.
The field was dry so after a few minutes we saw steps leading up to a gate so Gerry and I went through it and the first thing that struck us was how small a graveyard it is. Most of the graves were old and many inscriptions had weathered and therefore hard to make out. The oldest grave we found was from 1724 and it doesn't make any difference to us but we couldn't tell for sure whether the majority were catholic or protestant but a lot of names were familiar to us such as McGarrity, Tolan, Magee, McCartney and other names of families from in and around Hannahstown.
Well that's another graveyard ticked off but hopefully it'll be a long time before anyone notices my name on a headstone!
PS I've just found out that Patrick Magee, whose headstone can be seen, was shot dead by a local unit of the British army just after the 1798 rebellion. They were the UDR and B Special scum of that period.
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| Padraic Mac Coitir is a former republican prisoner and current political activist. |
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